Cell service restored to thousands, vandalism investigation underway

3:02 p.m. update: Service has been restored to thousands of cell phone customers after someone cut a fiber line near Brookland, knocking out cell service to much of the Region 8 viewing area.

A spokesperson for AT&T said they are working with the Craighead County Sheriff's Office, who is investigating the vandalism. She said someone cut a line along Highway 230 in Craighead County, just off of Highway 49B in Brookland.

Thousands of people have experienced issues with their cell phone service after vandals struck the Brookland area and cut a fiber, AT&T told Region 8 News.

This comes as customers of Verizon have also experienced issues.

A spokesperson for Verizon stated that residents in Batesville, Paragould and Walnut Ridge may experience service interruptions due to a "landline issue".

However, AT&T released said the "widespread" cell phone outage in northeast Arkansas has been caused due to vandalism.

"We are working to repair the damage as quickly as possible.," a statement from AT&T read. "Vandalism is a serious matter. We view these as crimes against the entire community. Any loss of communication can paralyze critical public health and emergency services and even threaten our security. We are cooperating with local law enforcement on an investigation of the matter. We apologize for this inconvenience.

The Greene County Office of Emergency Management posted on their Facebook page that the company is aware of “widespread outages in the region.”

The company has crews working on the system as well.

The Greene County Office of Emergency Management stated that you should still be able to call 911 in an emergency.

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